Fate of the Lost
by Whiteflame13
Summary: After being placed in a dangerous world, all to familiar to him, only the will of God forces this lost soul to action. Story is a collaborative effort with FanFiction user G.S. Pheonix
1. Chapter 1

**Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**

 **Hope you enjoy this collaborative story.**

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A strange veil of darkness and silence lifted from my mind.

The first thing that I could feel was a cold and hard ground beneath me. My body was still felt completely numb but the sharp temperature of the floor seemed to tear away at this haziness, as if it was waking my body up from a long sleep.

Although it felt as if I had no control over my body yet, I could start to feel different parts of my body, mainly my hands. Even though I could feel heat and sense flood back through my body, I still couldn't muster any strength to move.

Initially I tried to move my left hand, but my body refused to respond with even the slightest of movements. The effort of thinking and willing movement out of my body seemed to bring a haze of confusion over my mind again. This feeling didn't last for long, however I had no real perception of time so there was no real way of being certain.

Once again I felt the rush of sensation throughout my body, this time however I felt strength in my body and I could think much more clearly than before. This time, instead of trying to move my hand, I tried to open my eyes. As I forced my eyes to open I could feel the cloudy fog coming closer to my mind and body again, this time however I somehow managed to fight it off.

The simple process of opening my eyes ended up being painfully slow, yet my eyes were now open and I could see my surroundings with a strange clarity. The floor, which I had been lying face down on, was flawlessly black, almost as if I was floating mid air. But it had a strange glass like quality to it that made a physical layer of material visible.

I moved my eyes from the ground, hoping to find out where I was. Instead I was met only with blackness in every direction. It didn't look like any form of fog or smoke, nor did it seem to be made out of any shadows. The only thing that made sense was that there was simply nothing other than the floor and myself.

All of a sudden my entire body twitched violently, almost as if an electric shock had run through it. The twitch moved my head a little showing me more intangible space around me. Given that my body had just moved itself I focused everything I had to try and move my hand.

My hand moved with a complete ease and speed that surprised me. It seemed to take no effort at all, much different than before. I assumed that this meant that I had control over my body properly again.

To test this I moved my hand in front of my face. My hand was most definitely there, a pink mass of skin and flesh that sported 5 fingers. Something at the back of my mind snagged on the sight of my hand though, but although I tried to surface the thought it remained hidden to me.

Knowing that I could now move myself, I pulled my other hand around and pushed myself up from the ground and manoeuvred myself into a sitting position. The change between lying face down on the ground to sitting up in such a short time struck me as strange, considering that I had barely been able to move at all not too long before hand.

Now that I was sitting up I took a proper look around at my surroundings. I was a little surprised to find that it was exactly as I had seen from the floor. A strange impenetrable darkness and a glassy black floor.

I looked down at myself to find that I was in a long and bare white robe. The snag at the back of my mind became very clear now. An image quickly flicked past my mind's eye. A man, in his late teens, short black hair, green eyes and most definitely not wearing a white robe.

"Where am I?" I spoke without even meaning to, but it made me aware of a deadly silence that had surrounded me. I could tell that there was something very wrong with my situation. Blurry images kept passing by in my mind, but I wasn't able to focus on them as I grew worried at my surroundings.

"That took longer than expected." A voice echoed through the darkness. It was a deep voice of a male and sounded as if it belonged to someone extremely old. What scared me was that the voice seemed to come from every direction and seemed far yet close at the same time.

"I suppose, given the circumstances, it makes sense." The voice once again spoke out from every direction and seemed contemplative.

"Where am I?" Not knowing what I should do, I simply reverted to the first thing that I could think of doing.

"Oh, but can't you see? We're waiting for the train to arrive." The voice came from directly beside me and sounded confused, almost disbelieving.

I flicked my head to where the voice had come from. All of a sudden my eyes were blinded by white light; it felt as if a bright light had been turned on directly in my face. I had to shut my eyes tight against the bright light, but once I was able to open them again everything had changed.

Without me even realising it, I was sitting down on a wooden bench next to an old man with long white hair and flowing grey beard. The man was looking at me with pure bright blue eyes, smiling. He wore an almost identical robe as I was, the only difference was a grey rope tied around his waist.

I looked past him to see light brick pillars and arches which spanned off into the horizon. I looked back around and saw that we were on a train station platform, with a large train track a few metres in front of us. Past those tracks was another platform, then more tracks, then another platform. This seemed to go on past the visible horizon, similar to the arches.

Everything seemed so real, yet everything held a strange whiteness to the colours. This strange colour however seemed to only stick to the surroundings, but not the man sitting next to me. He was crystal clear, his eyes and skin seemed rich with colour.

"King's Cross." The name was familiar, it held some importance in my mind but once more I couldn't pinpoint it. "So many have come through this lovely place recently. A portal to a new world, which so so many people hold dear to their hearts."

The old man looked away and over into the distance. He started to hum to himself and rock side to side. If he was humming an actual song I couldn't tell, but I had to resist a strong impulse to join him in rocking from side to side.

"Who are you and why am I here?" The only way to keep myself from following the old man's motions was to focus hard on something else, which came in the form of these questions.

"Ah, I'm just a lonely old man who helps people to their trains." He took a few seconds to speak, but kept rocking his head from side to side. "As for you, you're here to catch your train." He said this with a gentle voice as if he were speaking to a child.

"If I'm here to catch a train, where is it?" I was seemingly in some form of train station, but I hadn't seen any trains or any sign of them apart from the grey tracks.

"Your train...?" The old man seemed confused for a few seconds. "Ah, yes I remember now." He had stopped rocking his head and had once again turned to stare at me with old and caring eyes. "Hmmm, now that is a problem."

A wave of fear flooded through me at his words, "What do you mean a problem?" I had no idea what was going on and the only other person here had now said there was an issue.

"Oh, no. Nothing to worry about." The old man reached across and placed a hand on my shoulder and placed some pressure on it. This simple gesture seemed to relax my entire body and warmth spread throughout me.

"You're simply much earlier than expected for your journey." He continued with a voice that was tinged with sadness and in his eyes I could see that what he was saying hurt him in some way. "The pain of so many clings to you, pain that is much too soon for you."

The warmth that had somehow come from his hand turned ice cold for a split second, before turning to nothing. The old man took his hand away from my shoulder and held his hands down into his lap and looked down at them with closed eyes.

I didn't understand what pain he was talking about and, from his expression, I knew that I probably shouldn't ask. "If I'm early, could I not simply leave until it arrives?" As I said this a sudden sensation of loss and a feeling of longing crept into my heart.

The old man looked up again and looked directly into my eyes; he simply shook his head and turned back to his hands. "There is a path that might lead you home. However things may not be as you left them."

"What do you mean, not as I left them?" The longing feeling I my heart had been replaced once again by a dreadful and painful fear.

"You rest under the beds of Eden my son. What was once broken may never return." The old man seemed to be holding back tears. Seeing the old man's turn of emotions sent a shock wave through me which sent my own thoughts into turmoil.

"I can show you the way, but you won't truly retain your humanity." He had raised his head again and placed one of his hands over my own in a form of comfort, this time no warmth ran through my body at the touch.

"What do you mean?" The fear had remained and although I asked the question, I didn't really want to hear the answer.

"You will be sent back as one of human's creations. Life created by man, living but dead at the same time." The old man seemed to have controlled his emotions and was looking directly back at me again.

"What if I decide not to go?" Again I asked the question, but the look in the man's eyes told me that I had already made my decision.

"Then you may wait here, alone, for eternity. My dear friend doesn't like people to be early or late." He said this with a small, pained laugh to himself. The simple thought of being left in this seemingly endless and empty place, alone, was enough to firm up my decision.

"You seem to have made your decision." The old man gave a nod, before pushing himself off from the bench; he seemed to require a lot of effort to do this simple thing. "I can show you the way. But, if I may ask a favour of you my son?"

I was compelled to accept whatever he asked me to do, so I gave a nod and waited for him to speak further. "When you return, you will find others, similar to you. Given life, but at the same time life is withheld from them. I can give you the power to give them their flame of humanity. All I ask is that you save them and any others who may arrive at this crossing."

"How would I be able to give them something like that though?" Once more the old man didn't speak clear sense and once again I felt as if I didn't need an answer, as if I already knew what was going to be said.

"You shall see in time, do not worry." He gestured for me to rise from the bench. A strange force compelled me to do as instructed as soon as possible. As soon as I was standing the man placed his hand onto my arm and my vision turned to black and the veil of shadow was once more over my mind.

The next thing I saw was a burst of white. Within this white a large number of coloured circles rushed towards me and past me without making a sound. In front of my eyes letters begin to appear.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online"


	2. Chapter 2

The burst of white faded slightly and a line of black text floated into existence directly in front of my vision.

"Welcome to Sword Art Online"

The name was oddly familiar and for some reason filled me with both dread and excitement at the same time. I knew that I knew this name from before everything had gone to darkness, before the meeting in the empty train station and I knew it meant a lot. The specifics however evaded me once more.

The letters very quickly seemed to fade away in a similar way to how they appeared. In their place a blue panel with a white box in the centre appeared. I could just make black letters that indicated that it was some form of login form.

I had no idea what should be placed into the white box or even how I would be able to input any characters. I went to press on the panel to see if that would do anything, but even though I felt my arm and hand move in front of me, no arm appeared in my vision.

In confusion I went to move my head to look down at what would presumably be a non-existent body. Yet, even though I could clearly feel my own body moving, my field of vision didn't change in the slightest.

I once again tried to move my arm forward to touch the panel and almost as soon as I did this the white box was filled with black dots, the panel making a slight beep sound as each dot appeared. The dots stopped appearing; the panel turned green and vanished. Something had automatically filled out the login form for me.

A few seconds after the panel had vanished from my view the white background filled my vision turned to darkness again. However this time light seemed to be penetrating the darkness, almost as if my eyes were closed against the bright sun.

I braced myself for what new place I would find myself placed in. The light, however, didn't fade away, nor did the imperfect darkness change to anything more sinister or unexpected. Instead I could feel a slight breeze move past my body, making me aware of the warm air that surrounded me. I could hear distant birdsong and the commotion of a large town or city spreading out all around me.

My first thought was that I had been placed back in reality, back to where I had come from before the darkness had engulfed my mind. Back home. But as I tried to think of home I could distinctly remember a white washed room and a bed, but I was standing up in the centre of a large town.

I opened my eyes, causing me to be partially blinded by the sunlight. Once the glare of the sun had faded I could clearly see where I was, I was most definitely in a tangible and physical place. The thing that was most prominent in my vision was a clock tower built if white stone.

This tower seemed to rise at least 20 metres high and was capped with a distinct bronze spherical top. The base of the tower had its own extended platform that was a good 5 metres high, making it seem almost impossible to climb up onto. Looking at the clock face above me I could just about make out the time 13:05.

I looked around the clock tower and saw that I was in a large circular courtyard of sorts. The floor had been made up of almost perfectly smooth and pristine grey bricks. Around the edge of this courtyard was a ring of overhanging archways, made of a similar white stone as the clock tower. Through a number of these archways was a route towards a street packed with people.

In the distance behind the clock tower was an imposing and large multi domed and multi towered temple of sorts that had been made out of an almost black stone. This dark material made it stand out from the rest of this central courtyard, obviously a building of significance.

What caught me off guard however, was the sheer number of people around me in this circular space. From just the quick scan of the area I had seen at least 100 people, all wearing brightly coloured clothes and the majority seemed to be wearing some sort of leather padding as armour.

Looking down at myself I saw that I was wearing a simple dark red shirt with a dark leather chest piece that seemed to cover most of my upper body and back. I was also wearing a belt around my waist, on which I could feel two distinct weights pulling down on it.

On my left side I saw a simple pouch with two large pockets. I unclasped one of the pockets and found two phials, made of a mixture of glass and metal, which contained a dark red liquid.

"Health potions." I said this almost on instinct without even knowing what I was saying. I looked down at the two phials in confusion, not knowing why I had called them potions. After a few moments of thought I simply passed it off as a random outburst and went to look at what was weighing down my right side.

On my right was a short sword that was sheathed in a hardened leather scabbard. My hand hovered over the handle of the blade, not knowing what to make of it. I was wearing armour, had a sword and had named the two phials health potions. Yet I was in a town surrounded by people and stone walls, a place that seemed much too safe to warrant carrying these items.

My attention was drawn from the blade as a rush of air and a burst of blue light appeared in front of me. What seemed like a burst of blue flame, which rose just above my own head height, came out of nowhere.

A second later the blue flames died down and vanished completely, leaving no trace that it was ever there. In its place was a person standing there with their eyes closed. It was a woman, slightly smaller than me with long brown hair, wearing similar gear to what everyone else was wearing but with a bright orange shirt.

She opened her eyes, revealing their hazel colour, and I could see pure excitement spread across her face as she took in the scene around her. She seemed to spin around and laugh and gave out a slight cheer once she had finished her look around.

She then seemed to make a gesture with her hand towards me. It was a strange gesture almost as if she was flicking something, but it was pronounced enough to mean something. A white panel quickly popped up in front of her and she started to flick through the contents of the panel with joy.

For me however the sight of this panel filled me with dread as memories began to flood into my mind. It felt as if floodgates had been opened in my mind, bringing back within a split second all of the memories of my life before my meeting with what I could only describe as God.

The first thing I remembered was my own name Ryou Kobayashi. At first this put me at ease, something of my own that I could remember specifically, my own name. But then another memory seemed to force its way forward into my mind's eye.

The memory was of the name "Sword Art Online" except unlike the reality that was plainly in front of me, that world was bound to fiction. I could remember very clearly that the name had been used for a series of novels that I had read.

The story of these books had revolved heavily around the concept of virtual reality, with the early parts of the story focused on a floating castle named Aincrad. One of the simplest things in that fictional world was the ability to open up a menu panel by flicking the thumb and index finger, in the exact way that the woman in front of me had done so.

The book told the story of human players trapped in a virtual reality representation of this floating castle, where death in the virtual world would lead to death in reality. I looked around the courtyard, the pristine condition of it, the number of people moving around, the bursts of blue flames and the woman in front of me with a menu panel open in front of her.

"Hello? Are you new to S.A.O.?" The woman seemed to have realised I was looking at her. She quickly flicked her menu screen off to the side where it disappeared and waited for my reply.

"Where are we?" I didn't want to believe the conclusion I had come to and needed confirmation of some form.

"Erm, really? You logged in and everything but don't know where you are?" She gave me a reproaching look and a shake of her head. This however was quickly replaced with a smile, "You're in Sword Art Online. More specifically in the Town of Beginnings, floor 1 of the grand castle of Aincrad."

She had called the place Aincrad and the name Sword Art Online, confirming at least some of what I was starting to piece together. Somehow the God of sorts that I had met in the ghostly train station had placed me into a fictional world.

"How do you log out?" I said very slowly. This would be the final piece of confirmation that I needed.

She gave me a confused look, "You really are new aren't you?" She gave a slight sigh before bringing out her menu panel again, "Flick you thumb and index to bring up your panel and then scroll down to find the logout button. Like this." She went through the motions.

After she had flicked down her menu her finger seemed to hover over a blank section of the panel. Her face had quickly turned from slight amusement of my question to one of confusion and worry. She shook her head, closed her menu and then reopened it.

"It's not there is it?" I asked the question knowing exactly what she was almost frantically looking for.

"How did you know though? The game has only been live for over 5 minutes now?" She had closed her menu down and had a very accusatory tone, almost as if she was blaming me. "Open up your own menu, make sure it's not just me."

I did as she asked of me. I flicked my fingers to open my panel. I was greeted with an identical white panel as I had seen, with a number of options along one side and a diagram of the items I was wearing on the other side. My attention quickly flicked to the above the gear load out where there was a name "Ryukishi", presumably this was my in game name that had been chosen for me at some point.

However I ignored the menus and flicked directly down to the bottom of the right hand side panel. From my knowledge and from watching this other person, the logout button should have been at the bottom. Instead I found a greyed out box in the place of the logout button.

The woman moved around to my side and stared intently at my menu panel. She breathed in heavily before moving away from me slightly. "I was in the Beta test. That button was at the bottom of the menu, I'm sure of it. It must just be a bug." Although she didn't seemed wholly convinced by what she was saying.

What this meant for me was that I had been sent to Aincrad by this God, sent into a death game that I had thought was simply fiction. There had to be a reason why this was happening, but my mind was simply filled with a mixture of fear and a strange excitement.

The death game of Aincrad seemed real enough and I was inside of it.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	3. Chapter 3

The crowd of people was bustling around, the rush of wind from the blue burst of flames pushed against me and bird song had begun in the distance. However it seemed like time was frozen for the woman whose name I didn't even know.

She had brought up her menu panel again and was staring intently at the blank spot where the log out button should have been placed. Her hand hovered over it almost as if she was going to press the non-existent button.

I could see a mix of different emotions pass across her face in a short amount of time. From confusion to disbelief to a distinct expression of fear. This fear however only lasted a brief moment as her face changed to one of stubborn determination.

This swift change caught me off guard as I felt that I had caused her to realise the possible implications. Even if I hadn't said the full extent to which we were locked into the game, she had seemingly come to the conclusion herself.

She shot me an accusatory glare and pointed directly into my face, "You, whatever your name is, are coming with me." Whilst still pointing at my face, she made a few quick movements with her other hand. These swift movements seemed extremely smooth and practiced, suggesting that she wasn't lying when she said she was a Beta tester.

A panel popped up in front of my face, just above where her finger was being held. The panel read "You have been invited to a party by Kyubi", under this were two small buttons, one blue with a white circle and one red with a similarly white cross mark.

She was still glaring at me and her hand was still raised, pointing at me, waiting for me to make a decision. I noticed that her free hand had moved down to her waist where it now rested on the hilt of her own sword.

"I get the feeling that I don't really have much of a choice in this." Even though I was unlikely to reject the offer, her intimidating stance didn't leave much leeway. Considering that I already knew the consequences of death in this game I felt that having another person to fight with would be a good way of keeping safe.

Before she could pull her sword out on me I pressed the blue button and a bar appeared in the top left of my vision. In the top left of my vision this new bar that I noticed joined one that I previously had not seen. They were two filled health bars, the top one next to the name Ryukishi and the one below was marked with the name Kyubi.

I saw Kyubi's eyes quickly flick to the left, "So you're called Ryukishi, fun name, but awkward. I'm going to call you Ryu. You can call me Kyu, our names match then." She seemed happy with what she had said and had put it in a tone that made me doubt that arguing would make much difference.

"Why do you even want to party with me?" I already knew what was to come, but Kyubi only knew that the logout button was gone. Considering I was the one that had revealed this bad news to her I couldn't see why she would want to be in a party with me.

"We're in a VRMMO and I can tell by your expression that you know more than you're letting on. I want to find out what you know." She spoke in an exasperated tone, almost as if what she was saying was completely obvious. "That and there's an area boss that's a nightmare to do solo."

With that last comment she turned around and began to walk across the cobble courtyard, towards one of the streets that led off into the city. I had no idea where she was going but felt that if I didn't follow her now I would lose her in the ever growing crowds.

With my focus now on keeping track of the bright orange shirt that was weaving through the crowd, I began to jog in order to keep up. As I began to move I felt a strange ache go through both of my legs and a strange feeling twisted in my kneecaps, as if my legs were never supposed to move again.

This feeling didn't last long however and within seconds I was running almost effortlessly towards Kyubi. As I caught up with her we had just reached one of the exits from the courtyard, which was in the shade cast down from the grand arches.

Running that distance hadn't put me out of breath in the slightest and my legs didn't protest when stopping. From what little that my mind had hastily pulled together of my old life, I knew that I was not an athletic person, nor was I fit in any sense. Further proof that I was in a virtual world, not that I needed more.

As Kyubi passed the threshold of the arches she turned around to check if I was still following her. At seeing me close behind her she smiled, nodded and continued down the street that was laid out in front of us.

I looked past her and saw that we were moving onto a huge street that seemed to stretch long into the distance. The street itself had multiple wooden pop up stalls, each selling different styles of items. Some were selling food; others were selling armour and weapons, whilst some were selling materials such as cloth.

The street was filled with players, possibly more than I had previously seen in the courtyard. Mixed in with the players were what I recognised to be NPCs, from their noticeably basic and plain attires. The NPCs however, were interacting with the players in a way that made them look completely human. It would have been hard to distinguish these AI programs from human beings.

The beauty and wonder that overcame me from just this simple sight caught me off guard and I stood there staring for a couple of seconds, not really wanting to move. Just from this street I could understand the feeling of never wanting to leave this virtual world.

"Good isn't it?" Even though I had only stopped for a few seconds Kyubi was at my side looking down the street with a smug grin. "Trust me, there's better later on. Now hurry up, we've got some shopping to do." With this she grabbed my arm and began to pull me forward.

At first out of instinct I pulled against her, but she was surprisingly strong so I was forced to give into her pressure. "What do you mean shopping?" I had to raise my voice to be heard over the commotion of the market street.

"Well there's a boss that I want to get the loot from, but the starting gear is really bad. I also want to start getting my cooking skill up. If we're stuck in here, I want good food." The last comment she said with a laugh, but I could find no humour in it given that I knew what was soon to happen.

"Where are you taking me then, can't we just get something from these shops?" So far we had moved past at least 10 different stalls that had sold a multitude of items.

"All the good shops are hidden in the alley ways. Have you never played a proper RPG before?" She sighed despairingly and continued before I could get chance to reply, "And I said I'd visit the owner when the full release came out, see if he still remembers me from the Beta."

"There's always a second condition with you. Isn't there?" I had no real reason to question what she had said, but had noticed that she always had a secondary reason for everything she had said so far.

"Maybe, calling that out already is just cheating though." She pronounced this with an over exaggerated shake of her head. All of a sudden she stopped in the middle of the road and turned her head to the left to look down a shaded alley way.

She seemed to glare at the alley way somewhat before nodding to herself and pulling me forward with her off of the street and down to our left. This alley was much much less crowded with only a few players and NPCs walking down the narrow pathway.

We navigated down the alley, Kyubi in front, pretty much in silence. She seemed to be concentrating on the buildings we were passing and I didn't want to distract her. Instead I just watched as she pulled me along not really knowing how everything had happened to me.

After a few minutes of walking, Kyubi came to an abrupt stop just outside the door of a building. She knocked on the oak door twice before turning the circular brass doorknob and pushing the door inwards.

The inside of the building was outfitted in a way that made it look like a basic shop. With purchasable items on display along the walls and with a counter at the back of the room. Considering that the walls were lined with weapons, I came to the conclusion that it was a weapons specialist shop.

Behind the counter was an old looking woman in a blacksmith's outfit. She was sitting down when Kyubi had opened the door, but by the time we had both walked inside the store front, which was deceivingly small, she was up and ready to serve.

"How can I help you?" She spoke with energy even though she seemed old.

"Camille, it's me Kyubi from the Beta test. Do you remember me?" Once more she sounded hopeful but didn't seem fully convinced by her own words.

"I'm sorry; we've only just opened up today." The old woman, who seemed to be called Camille, was oddly flat with her words and gave a look as if she didn't fully understand the question that had been asked of her.

I looked over to Kyubi to see that any hope had been wiped from her expression and she was visibly upset. "Can you show me what katanas you have in stock?" Kyubi's voice was weirdly dead beat and defeated. I barely knew her, but I could tell that she was now upset and I wanted to help her in some way, yet I didn't know how I would be able to help in the slightest.

"No problem." Camille gave a slight bow before pressing her hand against the table. 4 small bursts of blue flame appeared in a square around her hand. As the flame and colour faded 4 simple katanas were left, sheathed in leather scabbards, on the table.

"Please touch the one you wish to buy and confirm the purchase." Both the body and voice was human, yet it sounded completely flat and without any life.

Kyubi without hesitation pressed the sword on the bottom left and pressed the blue circle almost the instant it appeared. She then picked up the blade, turned heel and walked straight out of the shop. I quickly followed suit, buying the one on the bottom right, picking it up and rushing through the open door to find her.

She was leaning up against the wall next to the door, with her head up against the wall and her eyes closed shut. "Are you ok?" I could tell that she wasn't but I had no idea what to say to this person that I had only known for less than half an hour.

She let out a sigh and looked at me with an irritated glare, "We're going training now outside of town now." She pushed off against the wall started up a jog down the alley. She turned back around to me, "That's if you're coming of course." Even though it sounded like she wanted to be alone, I could see in her eyes that she was essentially begging me to follow.

I took in a deep breath, sighed and began to run to catch up to her.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	4. Chapter 4

It had been close to 4 hours since I had first opened my eyes within the centre of the Town of Beginnings. Now from where I was standing I could see the sun setting below the horizon, lighting the sky a mixture of muted orange and red colours.

Since leaving the town both I and Kyubi had been roaming the vast fields of the first floor. Most of the four hours had been spent hunting as many boars and wolves that we could find. Kyubi had seemingly taken it upon herself to teach me all she knew about the game. With this came the most important knowledge of how to fight enemies.

Initially we had gone against a pack of 3 boars. They were almost as tall as I was, distinctly muscular and with sharp tusks. I had questioned attacking a full group of them, but Kyubi waved me off and pulled the attention of the group by throwing a rock at them.

The boars had turned and instantly charged at the two of us with what seemed unrealistic speeds. Kyubi had laughed, drew her blade in a swift fashion and ran directly at the boars. She held her blade out at her side and it was covered in a soft blue glow, a sword skill. She then, within the space of a second, swiped her sword through all three of the boars.

The three enemies froze mid stride before bursting into a flurry of particles. The white particles seemed to be picked up by the wind and they floated off with a strange grace. Kyubi had already sheathed her sword and was looking at the out of combat loot panel that had appeared in front of her.

She closed the panel down and turned to me with a big smile. She walked back over to me and explained that she had missed the feeling of freedom that the virtual world had given her. She then went on to describe the sword skill she had used.

After that we moved on till we found a single boar grazing on its own. Kyubi stood to the side and indicated that I should attack it. She gave a single piece of advice, "Don't be scared of it, it may look big and ugly, but you have a sword."

After saying this, she gave an encouraging smile and threw a rock at the boar. The boar turned its head and looked at me angrily. This boar was much larger than the ones before hand and seemed to have glowing red eyes. The boar gave a loud snort, pulled its head down so that its tusks were pointing at me, and charged.

At this point though my entire body seemed to freeze up and I was stuck staring into its red eyes with my hand simply resting on the hilt of my sword. Before the boar's tusks could hit me Kyubi pushed me out of the line of the charge and jumped back from the boar, laughing at me.

"If you're going to hit it you need to pull out your sword at least." Kyubi had somehow managed to get the attention of the boar and was skipping around its attacks, waiting for me to attack it.

Knowing that eventually she would simply kill the boar and I'd get nothing for it, I pulled out my sword and charged at the boar. As I rushed at it its attention turned back to me and it tried to gain as much speed as it could before reaching me.

I pulled my sword to my side and it gave off a slight blue glow. From the point that my sword turned blue my body seemed to go into some sort of autopilot mode. I swung my blade upwards and found a seemingly perfect angle to cut through the boar without getting caught on the sharpened tusks.

A long glowing red line was left as an indicator of where my blade had cut straight through the boar's virtual flesh. The boar, similar to the last three, then burst into a flurry of white pixels that were carried off by the gentle breeze of that was rolling across the plain.

In front of me a panel popped up showing me the rewards that I had earned from killing the boar. The panel however didn't show any items, only experience points and Col, the money of this world. This was my first kill however and the small amount of experience I had earned gained me a level up message on the panel.

For me however it had meant much more than just a single level. It was the first enemy I had killed within the game and the point where I became fully convinced of what was happening. I was truly within Sword Art Online and I had just used my first sword skill and broke through the freeze up of fear.

Kyubi came over and congratulated me on the fight and seemingly ignored the fact that she had kept me from being hurt in the first place. She seemed happy enough that she could be helping somebody. She did seem a little disappointed that no items had dropped as she revealed that the boar was a higher level elite mob.

After that we continued to hunt and practice our fighting techniques. Even though by this point I knew there were around 10,000 players logged into the game, we saw no one else on the fields. Yet this gave is a peaceful tranquillity, which seemed strange considering we were fighting dangerous animals.

We kept doing this until we noticed the sun was getting close to setting below the horizon. Kyubi decided that we should have a break for a short while. We ended up finding a large tree which cast a cool shadow on the ground.

"It really does look real, doesn't it?" Kyubi was lying on the ground with her head resting on the base of the tree, in a way so that she could still see the falling sun. Her tone was surprisingly calm and considered.

"It may look real, but is it better than the real thing?" I had to agree that the sight in front of me looked completely real. Even though I was actively looking for flaws that would give away the hidden fact that it was all just a simulation of reality.

"I'm spending it with a friend, so it's perfect." She spoke these words very slowly and with apparent care. They caught me off guard though, I had so far only known her for 4 hours and even though I genuinely liked her I wasn't really thinking that she was my friend.

"Even if you don't think of me as a friend, please let me at least believe that we're friends." Her voice seemed to catch on her words and it was obvious she wanted to say much more, but was hesitating for some reason.

"You've helped me to get all of the way out to here, so why wouldn't you be my friend." I felt that it was best to tell the truth without embellishing it further. However this turn in conversation was completely unexpected. So far the only conversation we had had was related to the game.

"I suppose you'd like a proper explanation, considering this was out of nowhere?" She had regained some of the energy in her voice, but was slow to talk.

"I don't need an explanation if you don't feel like it." I didn't particularly know what to say at this point, but knew that trying to force something out of her would be counterproductive.

"No, its better you know what you're getting into early." She sighed before pushing herself up so that her back was against the tree, but stayed looking at the receding sun. "But, if I ask any questions about you, I expect them answered." She was pointing at me in an accusatory manner.

"There's always a secondary motive with you." I gave a slight laugh, "If you have questions, I'll answer them, but I can't guarantee how well they will be answered." My memory was still patchy and I didn't really know how much I wanted to talk about yet.

"In this world I seem overly happy and energetic most of the time don't I?" To this I gave a slight nod in agreement, "Yet at times I seem to switch from happy to really sad in a really short amount of time." My mind flicked back to her reaction when the shop owner hadn't recognised her.

"Outside, in the real world, I don't have many friends. The few that I do have seem to avoid me or I'm simply never able to see them or speak to them. I'm not athletic, not good at music or maths, I fail sciences constantly and most people just end up making fun of whatever I try and do." As she spoke she slowly pulled up her legs and hugged them against her body, as if trying to create a physical barrier.

"I don't know about you, but when I first came into this game, during the beta, it was perfection beyond belief. I was able to be someone else, I was able to be Kyubi, the strong heroine that I've always wanted to be."

This much at least I could understand from her. Even with the patchy memories that I had of my old life I knew that this was one of the biggest reasons why I had loved the story of Sword Art Online. The concept of Full Dive technology simply felt like the freedom to leave reality behind and be exactly what you wanted in a different world, even if it wasn't real it was a dream I had fallen in love with.

"You remind me of a friend I once had back in the real world. A friend I lost in a way that was out of my control. For some reason it feels like making up time I lost with them." This would explain why she seemed determined to help me. It also explained why she had originally asked to party up with me.

I wanted to say something, but had no idea what I should or could say without upsetting her. Before I could talk Kyubi kept talking, "Now it's my turn to ask questions. How did you seem to know that the logout button was gone, surely you hadn't tried logging out within 5 minutes of logging in?"

I thought about what I was about to say for a few seconds. I didn't know how much of a good idea it was to say that I was from a different world or time line, nor did I know if she'd even believe me. Yet I had no real reason to hide anything from her.

But as I opened my mouth to speak a loud ringing echoed across the field, the distinct sound of a church bell. As the bell rang out I stopped speaking with the sudden realisation of what was about to happen.

Kyubi looked at me confused. But within a second a burst of blue fire formed around her, forcing me back away from her slightly. The blue flame quickly vanished with Kyubi gone as well. She had been force teleported to the central courtyard in the town.

Kayaba was about to give his speech, revealing the fate of the 10,000 people now locked into the game. Yet what I couldn't understand was why I was still sitting up against the tree. I hadn't been teleported with Kyubi.

I pushed myself up from the tree and looked off into the distance, off into the direction where I knew every logged in player had been placed and began to run as fast as my virtual body would allow.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	5. Chapter 5

By the time I reached the gates of the town the sun was already halfway below the horizon, leaving the inside of town engulfed in cold shadow. The gates were wide open and were lit with two oil burning lanterns. The light from these lanterns seemed to sharpen the shadows that surrounded the gateway.

What was unnerving was how silent the place was. No one was coming in or out of the town, no one was moving through the streets that circled the edge of the wall and there seemed to be no NPCs in the area. The only sign of life were the lanterns that were creating greater shadows.

As I passed the threshold of the gate the sky turned pure scarlet. I stopped in my tracks and looked up at the sky, towards the centre of the town. A lone flashing red hexagon hung in the sky with the word "Error" flashing in a translucent white. A moment later the sky burst with these hexagons, spreading as far as the horizon, blocking out both the sky and sun and leaving a red glow on the ground.

I knew exactly what this meant, Kayaba, the creator and overlord of this world, was about to give his speech to the players of Aincrad. I put my head down, trying to ignore the silence and emptiness of the area, and continued to run towards the courtyard. In the sky I could just see a great shadow begin to appear, Kayaba's admin form was manifesting itself above the players.

I ignored the floating figure that was appearing out of what seemed to be blood and ran through the deserted streets, determined to get there before the speech was over. I knew that the players would be given an item that would return their avatar's to their real world bodies, a change that I knew would distress Kyubi beyond anything.

I was approaching one of the main streets that led directly to the centre. From the street I could see all the way down the deserted street and through the open archway. In the centre I could see a huge mass of players, standing frozen, looking up at the looming figure of what was essentially a god.

But even though I had a clear line of sight I couldn't see any detail, I couldn't distinguish properly between individual players. The air seemed to be hazy and tinted blue almost. The further I ran down the street the better I could see what was obscuring my vision.

A translucent blue barrier had been placed up all the way around the circular courtyard, as if a frosted glass dome had been placed over the entire area. I ran up to what was the entrance to the packed courtyard and was met with a physical wall. Not only did the barrier obscure vision it, but it stopped anyone from entering or exiting the area.

I stood back from the barrier, not really knowing what I had expected to happen, and tried to look through and find any sign of Kyubi. Instead my attention was caught by footsteps and the slight sound of rattling metal.

I span around to find a player walking up to me from the street I had just run through. The player had white hair, a red shirt, a sword on his belt and a shield over his back. He was somewhat taller than I was and was most definitely in better shape than I was physically. He walked at me with an air of sheer power and authority.

"Hmm, and how did you get out here?" His voice was reasonably deep and aged. His tone was similar to one of a parent about to scold a child. The issue was that I knew exactly who he was and that he had at least some reason to speak to me in such way.

"Kayaba." I spoke his name quietly, so that he could only just hear me. I quickly looked back up into the sky to see the robed figure still floating in the air above the trapped players. The one inside the dome could be no one other than the creator of the game, but the person in front of me looked exactly like Heathcliff, Kayaba's character within the game.

"So, you know who I am. But I don't know who you are, or how you've managed to avoid my grand speech." He seemed slightly irritated but at the same time curious. In his face I saw a brief flicker of anger but it quickly subsided and returned to a condescending glare.

Once again, I had no idea what I should say to this man. He was the creator of the game and held more power than any other player within this world. If I spoke wrongly he could simply click his fingers and kill me outright.

"Hmm, not saying anything then." He laughed slightly before quickly pulling up a panel and expertly navigated his way through a number of different panels. He stopped for a second and looked up at me with a mixture of confusion and wonder.

"Well you're not logged in as a human player. Yet you are not an AI I remember being implemented into the game." I didn't know exactly what he meant by me not being a human player, but it made some sense seeing that I hadn't been teleported like the rest of the game.

"So if you're not a player and you're not one of my AI, Cardinal must have created you." The confusion in his tone seemed to have disappeared and replaced by indifference. Cardinal was the background system and AI that had been put in place to manage the entirety of Aincrad, seemingly the creator of Cardinal wasn't too surprised that it could create further AI.

What unsettled me, though, was the fact that he had called me an AI and had completely dismissed the fact that I was a player. Yet I could remember a distinctly human life in my memories and I was standing and breathing in this world as a human, not a computer program.

"Whoever you think you are, just remember that you are in fact an AI in this world. One that I can't find any record of, as well." Kayaba somehow managed to guess exactly what I was thinking. He then looked up and at the robed figure that hung high inside the dome.

"It looks as if the grand speech is coming to its end. Shame really, you won't get to see the gifts I gave to everyone." Although his words were somewhat condescending his tone was one of someone who was no longer properly paying attention.

"The mirrors." I spoke out loud without realising.

Kayaba turned and looked at me with a hard stare, his full attention was on me once again. "How did you know that?" He spoke with an intimidating tone, but once again there was a hint of a creator's curiosity behind it.

Being on the outside of the dome, there was little to no way that I should have been able to know what Kayaba had meant by a gift. But my knowledge of this world seemed to have held true. Each of the trapped players had been given a mirror, that when looked into changed their avatars into their real selves.

"The same way I knew who you were." I hoped that this would pass by Kayaba. I realised that telling Kayaba anything more about myself, or even giving him the opportunity to work something out for himself, was likely to end bad for me.

Kayaba looked as if he was about to say something but was stopped as the silence of the town was broken by the rush of wind and by what sounded like a downpour of rain. Kayaba looked past me and shook his head slightly.

I turned around to see that the barrier was slowly beginning to break down from the top. The tint of blue slowly began to fade and as the barrier began to fall further the sound of screaming and shouting could be heard. As soon as the barrier that physically blocked my entrance had fallen the sky returned to its normal colour of blue and the sun, which still had yet to properly fall below the horizon gave a pale light to the area.

Looking through I could see the thousands of players that had been trapped listening to Kayaba's grand speech as he called it. In the crowd I could see a few defiant expressions, with some drawing blades and turning to leave the courtyard as quickly as possible.

Yet the majority of players looked far from confident or defiant. Many were on their knees crying, others holding each other, some standing frozen in shock and disbelief. It was the sort of scene I'd imagine seeing during a war, not in a place like this, a place so pristine and peaceful.

I quickly turned my head to see what Kayaba was doing now that the barrier had fallen. But instead I was simply met with thin air. Even though I had clearly heard him approach me he had seemingly made no audible sound whenever he had left. Presumably he didn't intend to watch the aftermath of what he had done, or simply didn't want to get in the players' ways.

I turned back to the courtyard just as the first of the trapped players reached me. Even though I had been on the outside of the dome, they seemed to not pay any attention to me and just walk straight past me without as much of a glance in my direction. This at least gave me some relief, not having to try and explain to sword wielding and angry players why I hadn't been with them.

One thing I noticed was that Kyubi hadn't passed me. Even though there was a good chance her appearance would have changed, as we were still in party I would have seen her name pass by me. I started into the courtyard and began searching for her name tag.

It didn't take long for me to spot the floating black name tag, but it was much lower down than it would have been for a standing person. Not knowing what to expect, I pushed my way through the traumatised crowd to the front of the clock tower where the name tag was hovering in the air.

On the ground, holding her knees up to her body and her head pressed down as far as possible was Kyubi. From what I could tell she hadn't changed much in appearance, other than that her hair was much paler and although I couldn't be certain, she seemed smaller than I remembered.

I knelt down and placed my hand gently on her shoulder, "Kyubi?" As soon as my hand touched her I could feel her entire body jump slightly and as soon as I said her name she whirled her head around to look at me.

What instantly struck me was how much younger she looked, previously she seemed at least 20 years old, but now she couldn't have been any older than 15. She must have made her character older when she had created it, in an attempt to get away from her reality.

Her eyes showed that she had been crying, although now they were somehow dry. As she had first looked at me her eyes were filled with fear. Her expression quickly turned to relief, seemingly recognising me, before once again turning back to fear and despair.

Not expecting her to move I knelt down and pulled her into a hug. Kyubi pulled her arms away from her legs and put them around my neck, pulling me as close to her as possible. She then buried her head into my shoulder and began crying.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	6. Chapter 6

"Kyubi, wake up." I gently shook her shoulder and in reply I heard her mumble something into her bed covers. "You have 10 minutes or else you'll be cooking your own food." With that I left the small bedroom and walked across the hallway to what served as a kitchen.

It had been 1 month since I had first come to this world and 1 month since the players, such as Kyubi had been trapped from returning to reality. In that space of time the players had yet to break the first floor, only yesterday had Diabel made the announcement that the boss room had been found.

It had been a strange and tumultuous one month. I had known that it would take this long before the boss room would be found, so I had taken this time to learn as many new skills as I could within the game, cooking being one of the skills I had spent the most time developing.

In the start Kyubi had spent at least 3 whole days in a rented room, in bed, trying to ignore the world around her. Almost as if by doing this the nightmare of this world would come to an end and she would be able to go home and see her family. It had of course been in vain and by the end of it she had been a crying wreck of a person.

At first she refused to leave the safety of the local streets, but as time went on she let herself go further and further until she had seemingly regained enough confidence to begin fighting. By some miracle she seemed to enjoy hunting and fighting the enemies in the game, it was a place where she could ignore the fact that she was in her real body and could act as the strong heroine that she had dreamed of becoming.

From that first fight on wards we had spent countless hours fighting and exploring as a pair. Kyubi was a much better fighter than I was which was apparent as she was able to take out twice as many enemies than me in half the time. Yet this didn't really bother me too much as I had started to focus more on becoming a defensive warrior, a tank.

Our different fighting styles were reflected in the gear we wore. Kyubi wore light leather armour across her vital sections, this was simply to allow her to move unhindered in combat. Although she had bought and looted a number of different swords, she was still using a katana for her main weapon. Unlike the simple blade that she had bought at the start, her current blade had a red velvet handle, an intricate cross guard that had butterflies engraved onto it and the sheath was hardened leather painted with pink flowers.

I, on the other hand, wore a full chain mail shirt, steel greaves and bracers and carried a shield over my shoulder. In my left hand I would carry the reinforced wooden round shield, whilst in my right I would carry a simple steel short sword. I rarely found any useful gear dropped from defeated enemies and my money had been saved to buy a house.

The house had cost a surprising amount, considering that it only had 4 rooms and a bathroom. But it had been worth it as it gave a sense of anchoring, a static place where we could sleep in every night and a place that was private to us. The house was located in one of the outskirt towns that surrounded the main city that served as the main spawn point for the players.

The town was reasonably small and only 7 other players had bought houses near to us. Two of those players were a married couple from the real world and had set up a blacksmith and general materials shop. Both me and Kyubi regularly visited and helped out by trading any of our unwanted items for money or equipment upgrades.

The best thing however was that the shop sold all types of ingredients for making food. Most players hadn't invested into a cooking skill, so weren't able to properly use any of the ingredients to their potential. Instead players had started to rely on NPC run restaurants and food shops. This had meant that food items were extremely cheap to buy.

Once Kyubi had originally managed to recover from her shock one of the first things she truly began to do was complain about the quality of the food. So I had decided to look at improving my cooking skill as quickly as possible. This was partly because the food that we were buying from the NPC shops was extremely bland and partly because I wanted to find a way to cheer Kyubi up.

My cooking ended up having the intended effect of cheering Kyubi up. However, the fact that she had liked the food that I had made for her led to me cooking everything that the both of us ate. I wasn't too bothered by this but I felt that I was putting a lot of time into cooking when I could have been attempting other things.

For cooking I had found that two methods had been implemented into the game. The first, the easier of the two, was simply to navigate through the cooking menus and as long as you had the needed ingredients at hand the game would prepare and make the food for you. The second method required the player to prepare all of the food and cook it in the exact same way as would have been done in reality.

Although there was no tangible difference between the two methods, Kyubi had argued that properly made food tasted much better. So every morning and evening I would prepare meals for both of us. The prospect of good food had also become an easy way to force Kyubi out of bed.

I began cooking food for the both of us, knowing that Kyubi would eventually get out of bed, and began to think about the day that lay ahead. As the boss room had now been found, all of the high level players had been called upon to help with the boss fight. Diabel, the man who found the boss door, was coordinating the expedition and had held a meeting with as many people as possible

However neither I nor Kyubi had attended the meeting as we had only found out about it an hour before it had started. However the important information had been passed around to as many players as could be reached.

From my own knowledge and what had been told to us the expedition was to begin at noon and end when either the boss was defeated or everyone was killed. The prospect of dying had been emphasised greatly to me, however I already knew that the boss would be defeated with minimal loss. Kyubi on the other hand was much more reluctant to join the front line fight.

Kyubi had argued that the risks were too big to be worth it, defeating the boss in a huge raid group was unlikely to earn us more than we could earn from a day's worth of hunting. But after a good hour or so of back and forth argument I managed to persuade her to come on the expedition, the main sticking point was that I would have left her to witness the first boss be defeated and she seemed to feel that the risk of death was a lesser evil than being left alone for the day.

At noon everyone who intended to join the expedition was to meet up in the ancient amphitheatre that the previous meeting had been held. From there Diabel and his party would update everyone's map with the location of the boss room. We would then be given 3 hours to prepare and meet up outside the boss room. Anyone who arrived after this time would be locked out from the fight.

"Is the food ready yet?" Kyubi had somehow managed to sneak up behind me and was peering over my shoulder at the food I was preparing. I got the impression that she had been improving her sneaking skill in order to help her with combat, however being able to sneak around silently came with a number of benefits.

"It'll be done soon." I signalled for her to sit down at the small table in the centre of the room. "You should probably get your gear ready as we're going to be leaving pretty soon." I opened my menu panel to see that it had already gone half past eleven, giving us only a short while to turn up.

Surprisingly she moved over to the table without any argument and started to flick through her equipment panels. As my attention moved back to the food I could hear the changing of equipment behind me, I turned my head around and saw that she had already put on her full battle gear.

Seeing that the food was now ready, I plated it out and brought it over to the table. As soon as the food hit the table Kyubi attacked in her usual energetic manner. I had only made a small amount of food, trying to keep to time constraints, as although food was extremely fulfilling we didn't actually need to eat in this world.

It only took a few minutes to finish the food and the moment we did Kyubi jumped to her feet, hand resting on the pommel of her sword. I quickly navigated my way through my own inventory panels and began the process of equipping my armour. For the hike to the meeting place and to the boss room I decided that I would only wear a small amount of heavy armour, to help with my movement.

Seeing that I had my equipment sorted out, Kyubi rushed to the door of the house and yanked it open, letting in a rush of cool air. I pushed myself, almost reluctantly, from my own chair and moved to follow Kyubi before she could disappear down the street without me.

By the end of it the journey had taken about 20 minutes, however this had involved speeding through enemy zones, which would normally be avoided, as form of shortcuts. The meeting point was a half ruined amphitheatre that was made out of cracked marble furniture that had been left to the mercy of the elements.

I could count around 30 different players in the general area, 5 of these players stood on the stage of the structure and were seemingly there to pass on instructions and the map updates. At this point Kyubi seemed to hide behind me somewhat and visibly receded into herself. She did not like gatherings of people this big.

I slowly made my way over to one of the 5 at the front, making sure that Kyubi was still keeping up with me. "Are you handing out the map updates?" I caught the man's attention with this.

"Yea, I'll bring up the trade panel and I can send the map data to you." He didn't seem particularly in the mood for conversation and quickly brought up a trade panel where he transferred the map data to me. He looked at Kyubi, as if wondering if he was going to update her map to. But I gave a slight shake of my head, if needed I could do it myself.

"Where are the others, like Diabel?" Diabel was nowhere to be seen in the crowd of people, even though he was organising the raid.

"All the ones at the meeting yesterday had updated maps and left a while ago for the boss room. You still have about 3 hours to get there before they start though." He said this as fast as he could before turning his attention away from me to another player wanting map data.

I moved away and looked down at Kyubi, "Ready to get going then?" At this she simply nodded. So I opened up my newly filled in map and began walking in the direction that would lead us to the boss room.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	7. Chapter 7

The journey to the boss room had taken us close to the full 3 hours that we had been given as our time limit. Although most of the first floor was a calm expanse of green fields and deciduous forest, the boss room was at the far end of an underground cave system.

The caves were lit up with burning torches that had been holstered into metal brackets along the walls, although the flames seemed to have a strange green tint to them. The first few rooms had been quiet, but as we moved further into the strange cavern there we could hear the distinct sound of fighting and the high pitched squeal of dying enemies.

Yet even though we sped up our pace we never caught up with any other players, nor did we see what they had been fighting. Although Kyubi had pointed out that the squeal had sounded completely different to the boars and wolves that we had been fighting up until this point.

About 5 minutes after we had heard this fighting we began to hear a large number of voices echoing through the caverns towards us. Kyubi sped up ahead of me and by the time I had caught up with her we were standing in a large open hall of sorts.

Unlike the rest of the cave system that we had walked through, the floor here was made out of carved stone bricks. The roof was set very high and was being held up by 4 grey stone pillars that were cracked and dirty from age and the weight placed upon them.

At the other of the hall was a large ornately decorated metal door, which was at least 3 times as tall as a normal person. On either side of this door two huge braziers were set into the wall and contained a flame that was lighting up the entirety of the room on their own.

Directly in front of the door stood Diabel, looking away from the door and at all of the players that had assembled. Diabel was easily one of the most recognisable players that I had seen, with bright blue hair and a shockingly calm and in control stance.

Other than Diabel I recognised a few other players standing around. A man with spikey red hair surrounding by a group of samurai looking players, Klein. A large dark skinned man who was casually holding a great axe over his shoulder, Agil. A dark haired player in a blue shirt with a player hiding their features with a white hooded cloak, Kirito and Asuna.

Once again it felt bizarre that I was so easily able to name people who I had never actually met or seen before. Yet even though I hadn't ever spoken to these people in this world, it still felt as if I was long-time friends with these people.

Apart from these players, that would prove to have major effect in future events, I recognised two other players. Akemi and Kazuo, they were the couple that owned the town store, yet they rarely had anything to do with the front line clearers.

Akemi had long, perfect white hair, presumably dyed, that fell below her shoulders. She wore a full chainmail shirt with leather padding over the more vital areas. Along her face was a long scar that seemed to stretch the skin of her face somewhat. The scar simply added to the authoritative and intimidating aura that radiated round her.

Kazuo on the other hand seemed to be the complete opposite. Short dark hair and a welcoming smile across his face. He was the same height as Akemi, which was slightly taller than I was wearing light leather armour pieces across his body. Both of them looked around 30 years old at the very least.

From what I knew, Akemi fought in a similar way to how I fight. She used a one handed shield in her left hand and a spiked mace in her right. Of the two she was the tank, but she looked as if she could easily deal out a huge amount of damage.

Kazuo used a two handed great sword that was probably heavier than Akemi's entire gear. However in tandem with Akemi's defence, Kazuo was able to take out enemies with swift and deadly force, a strange fact considering his personality.

Kyubi seemed to have seen the two standing together at the back of the assembled players and moved out from behind me and over to them. I followed Kyubi, a little slower, and raised my hand in greeting to the two.

Akemi nodded her head towards me whilst Kazou gave an enthusiastic wave. "It is good to see you two here. I was hoping that we would see you two in action." Kazuo spoke first and was mainly directing it towards Kyubi who was seemingly trying to hide herself between the three of us.

Akemi caught my attention with a purposeful gaze, "Plan is we split into groups, the big raid parties take the boss, we hold the aggro of the adds." She spoke quickly and in a manner that suggested that she had no intention of repeating herself.

What she was saying, however, didn't really need repeating. We had obviously come too late to hear the battle plan. But it was simple enough to understand that we would be fighting off any of the weaker minions that surrounded the boss, whilst the bigger parties would take on the boss.

"Yes, it is a good plan. Now we thought it would be a good idea if you two would group up with us, at least during the fight. Just so we have two tanks to keep an eye on things. Normally I wouldn't doubt Akemi, but it is a boss room." Kazou spoke in an upbeat tone that clashed with the surrounding dark room.

Akemi looked around at Kazou in a somewhat irritated look, she obviously hadn't been told about this beforehand. But she gave a sigh and a shake of her head before turning back to me. "I doubt we need two tanks, but it is a boss room so having the safety of another would be nice."

"Seems a reasonable idea." I knew that there would be a large number of smaller enemies that we would need to handle in the boss room, so any form of safety net was appreciated. "Kyubi, you good to join up?"

Kyubi just looked at me with a questioning look and blinked a few times. For any normal person this could mean anything, but for Kyubi it was a sign that I had asked a stupid question. Considering that she had come close to running over to Akemi and Kazou the assumption was that she wanted to fight with them.

"Right, I suppose we're good to go then." Akemi took the silence and seemed to fully understand the exchange of looks and went to pull out her weaponry from her inventory. Kazou did the same, but unlike his wife, who was weighed down slightly by her shield and mace, he seemed to stand taller with the huge blade resting at his side.

Even though both I and Kyubi already had our gear on I decided to change the shield I was carrying. Currently it was a light reinforced wooden shield that allowed me to have greater mobility whilst fighting. But as I was going to be fighting with a second shield user I took a large metal shield, which when raised would cover my entire arm and left side of my chest with ease.

Akemi looked at the shield I had just equipped and gave a somewhat smug grin. The shield was one that she had created for me a week ago and I presumed that she rarely got to see the pieces she forged in proper action.

As the weight of the shield fell onto my arm a loud cracking and dragging sound rushed through the hall. Turning to see what had made the noise I saw that the imposing boss room door had been opened with Diabel standing shield raised in front of the entrance.

Everyone in the room instantly tensed up and made sure they were at the ready. This game had quickly taught people to be at alert at the slightest possibility of danger and everyone in the room seemed to have the same reaction. Raise weapons and drop into a defensive stance.

To my side Kazou drew out his great sword in a slow and drawn out manner, I got the impression that in his mind he was about to face off alone against hundreds of enemies. Kyubi drew out her katana and started to move from side to side, any nervousness of being in a crowd gone now that the fight was about to begin.

I raised my shield and held my hand on the pommel of my sword, unsure as to if I should pull it out yet. Akemi on the other hand was already spinning the handle of her mace in her hand, looking impatient to get started.

Ahead of us Diabel had entered the room followed by the larger raiding group that was intended to fight the boss. The room they had entered was almost pitch black so nothing yet could be seen. Diabel turned and signalled for everyone to follow in.

"Looks like we're up." Akemi spoke in a quiet and resolute voice. At Diabel's signal, the remaining players, including us, rushed through the door and formed up as a line. Even though we still couldn't see any enemies the shield users, out of habit, moved straight to the front and formed a somewhat organised wall.

Akemi was standing next to me and I could see all of her muscles had tensed up and her shield arm was rigid. To my right was another shield bearer who held their shield up in a similar way, like stone and steel preparing for an onslaught. All of the people who bore shields were at the front line by choice and by nature of wanting to protect.

All of a sudden a number of braziers attached to the walls burst into brilliant orange flames, lighting up the entire room. There was strangely no glare or daze following this burst of light, meaning that I could instantly see the room surround us.

The floors and walls were made from grey stone; however iridescent waves seemed to ripple over their surfaces, making them look less solid than they were. Along both sides of the room circular pillars held up the roof and helped to enclose the space further. At the other end of the room was a staircase that led to a small wooden door.

However, blocking that staircase, was a huge number of enemies. Forming a line in front of the staircase was a large group of at least 50 armoured kobolds, some holding maces, others with swords. Behind them was a huge monster with red skin and a kobold's head, although its body and height was at least 5 times greater than that of any normal kobold.

The large enemy, the boss of the room, lifted its head and looked at the invading players with fury. The name "Illfang the Kobold Lord" appeared above his head as he gave out a cry of war that seemed to shake the ground and walls of the boss room. At this cry the group of kobolds raised their weapons and charged at us screaming in a language I had no understanding of.

Behind me I could hear the nervous voices of some players; I could hear the slight creak of metal and footsteps moving away. People had been scared by the sight of the enemies and were trying to turn. I looked to my sides to see that the shield wall hadn't moved an inch, with each player staring down at the approaching enemies without flinching.

The sound of footsteps was quickly silenced as I heard the bang of the grand door closing behind us. We were locked into this room and would either leave victorious or not at all. Diabel raised his sword into the air and shouted, "Charge!"

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	8. Chapter 8

Within moments of the call the shield wall broke apart and the players charged towards the rushing kobolds. Akemi quickly broke contact with my shield and signalled for me to follow beside her. She put her head down and raised her shield as she ran to the left side of the approaching enemies.

But the kobolds were already upon us before we were able to properly get into position. 3 kobolds had split off from the main group and were now in front of us, brandishing shining steel weapons. Without taking my attention off of our aggressors I could see that the entire room was filled with similar small engagements, though the main group had yet to breach the minions and reach the boss.

Akemi rushed down the kobold in the front, bashing her shield into its face, causing it to fall back slightly. I followed up by lunching my shield arm into the air. My shield momentarily gave off a brilliant green glow before a shockwave ripped through the air, knocking the first kobold to the ground and staggering the two just behind it.

I hadn't noticed when Kyubi and Kazou had reached us, but the moment the kobold hit the ground they began their attack. Kazou lunged his sword forward in an attempt to dig it deep through the Kobold's throat, Kyubi on the other hand sliced down onto its right arm, trying to disarm it of its jagged sword.

Kazou's sword managed to smash through the crude armour that it was wearing, but its dragon scales managed to take the rest of the impact. Kyubi on the other hand seemed to have had better luck as when she withdrew her blade the kobold's arm had a glowing red gash. I quickly looked at the health bar that floated by its head, the two attacks had only just put it above 3/4th of its maximum health.

"Switch!" Akemi gave the quick order. Kazou swiftly withdrew his sword and jumped back off to the side and moved so that he was just behind Akemi. Kyubi on the other hand moved to go for another attack; we had never fought with anyone else so the general key words that people went by meant very little.

I could instantly see why Akemi had given the order. The two kobolds that had been staggered by my shield skill had moved forward and were about to strike against Kyubi from her side and back. The kobold on the ground also seemed to have gained control of its movement and was raising its sword to attack from the ground.

Akemi reacted much faster than I had expected from her. She rushed forward, rammed the edge of her shield down onto the grounded kobold's hand and used her mace to parry the incoming strikes. Kyubi realising her mistake dashed back away from the kobolds and back beside me. However with Kyubi out of the way, Akemi was now in danger.

All three of us seemed to realise this at the same time and we all moved forward to protect her. Kazou once again thrust his sword at the kobold's neck, this time breaking through the scales and lodging his blade in its flesh. I fell into a guard stance in front of Akemi, blocking any attack to let her retrieve her shield. At the same time Kyubi was moving round the side of the two standing kobolds to try and take their attention.

Akemi quickly managed to regain her position and went to work on the floored kobold. She seemed to have no remorse as she brutally battered down on the kobold's head with her mace at the same time as smashing her shield edge into its chest. However I could see that the health bar was now coloured red and fast dropping.

I turned my attention back to Kyubi who was holding off the two other kobolds. Both of the kobolds had taken some damage, although minor, but Kyubi had managed to either avoid or block any damage that was sent in her direction. The movement of the kobolds was faster than anything else we had fought on this floor, but Kyubi was managing to weave between their attacks and slashed a glowing blade at the weak points in the armour.

I raised my shield, pointing at the kobolds, and let it glow a dark red. This was another shield skill that forced any effected enemies to be drawn towards you. It was a very basic support skill, but at this level it worked extremely well.

With their attention on me completely, Kyubi was able to properly go to work into their backs. Behind me I heard the sound of rushing wind and heavy movement. Presumably Akemi and Kazou had managed to kill the first kobold and were now moving to support. I kept my shield raised and the shield skill active, even though the attracted kobolds were now viciously attacking the shield.

Kyubi had been using every sword skill she had available to her which had led to the blade changing colours as every second passed. Kazou repositioned himself next to Kyubi and Akemi moved to my side and raised her shield so that it was facing the kobolds. Her shield gave off a bright green glow and a shockwave, similar to the one I had created, knocked the two kobolds to the ground.

Akemi and Kazou moved swiftly onto the one closest to them and performed a similar attack as before. Kazou managed to lodge his blade through the downed monster's flesh and Akemi began to crush its bones and flesh with her mace.

On the other kobold I tried a similar thing. I thrust my sword through its shoulder and my shield up against its neck. My sword only just broke through its scales and my own body weight was just enough to keep the kobold from pushing me off of it. Kyubi then went to work on its head and exposed limbs, doing as much damage as she could as fast as possible.

The kobold below me thrashed around and tried desperately to throw me off, even going as far as to try and bite at my arm. But with a lot of effort I managed to keep it down on the ground long enough to watch its health bar rapidly drop from a safe orange all the way down into red before completely emptying. All of a sudden I felt the pressure against me vanish and I dropped to the ground with a slight thud as the dead kobold burst into floating particles.

To our side Akemi and Kazou had already finished off their opponent and were on their feet, weapons at the ready. Kyubi on the other hand held her sword loosely at her side and looked exhausted, even though in this virtual world it was impossible to be physically strained.

I pushed myself up from the floor and raised my shield so that it covered my neck, giving me safety to look around the boss room. All around the kobold minions were being overwhelmed and a majority of the small defence groups had already joined up with the main vanguard that was fighting the kobold lord.

Looking over at the boss I saw that its health bar was just about to hit the red region. Even though it was weakened, it was fighting with a strange ferocity and confidence behind every swing of its single bladed axe. The sight of the weakened boss didn't bring any joy or relief as the events about to unfold were already known to me.

I frantically looked around the room for Diabel, looking for his blue hair. I found him standing at the back of the vanguard giving orders. As I looked at him I heard the dying scream of a kobold minion far to my right, leaving only the sounds of the boss and his combatants.

In my mind I remembered the task I had been given long ago now. I still didn't understand the full extent of what I had been asked to do, but the general idea seemed to be saving lives that were lost in this game. And in front of me was an influential player who could lead the survivors to salvation, a player who was about to throw his life away.

I saw the health bar of the boss drop into the red zone. The kobold lord let out a resounding roar that shook the stone pillars slightly. He threw his axe up into the air behind him, where it heavily fell to the ground, and pulled out another blade from behind it. A huge black steel nodachi blade.

At the sight of the blade all of the nearby players seemed to back off and move into defensive stances, not knowing what to expect from the weapon. Diabel on the other hand rushed forward and called for everyone to fall back from the boss.

I knew that I was nowhere near skilled enough to take on the boss in order to save Diabel so all I could do was shout out to him. I tried to shout his name but my throat seemed to constrict itself, not letting any sound pass. I tried again to shout, this time moving forward to try and reach him in time. But again no sound came from my mouth and I felt as if I was being pulled back by an invisible force, preventing me from getting any closer to Diabel.

The boss had now jumped up into the air and was moving from pillar to pillar at blistering speeds, in an attempt to build up momentum for his next strike. There was little time left and I fought against the force holding me back and tried as much as possible to shout or make any noise at all.

Instead I was met with what felt like a black veil that began to come over my vision and all energy slowly leave my body. At this point I noticed that the constriction in my throat had stopped me from being able to breath, even in this virtual world you needed to breath.

But I kept fighting the force, determined to beat it, determined to try and warn Diabel of his impending death. Yet the more I fought it, the more my senses began to fail. First of all my sight faded to black. I then felt my legs give from under me, but I didn't feel the collision with the ground. All that seemed to remain was a slight amount of hearing, enough to hear a voice shout out to Diabel.

I knew it wasn't my own voice, meaning that it had to have been Kirito, the only other person who would have realised what was about to happen. However if Kirito had only just shouted for Diabel then it was too late to save him. The next moment I heard a monumental collision and a number of people shouting. Diabel had been hit with the full momentum of the kobold lord's strike.

At that point my hearing failed me and everything had turned to a dark silence.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	9. Chapter 9

Around me was dark silence. My vision was dark and I could hear nothing that would suggest life or reality. I don't know how long exactly I was like this, but out from nowhere came the gentle sound of fluttering wings. At first the sound was quiet and distant but it very quickly became louder and louder until it sounded as if it was directly at my ear.

The sound of fluttering wings, however, was quickly replaced by the screech of a whistle that seemed intent on never stopping. Yet, even though the whistle was screeching too loud for me to properly think, I faintly recognised it as a noise that meant something of importance.

The whistle abruptly stopped and I could see light getting through my closed eyes. Although I couldn't hear anything I could feel a slight pressure above me and below me. Wherever I was, I had been placed into a bed by someone.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I was the room that I had spent just under a month sleeping in; I was back to my house on the first floor. On seemingly any flat surface someone had put down candles that were now burning low, giving the space a strange muted orange glow.

What was distinctly out of place was the person sitting in a chair next to the bed with their head and arms down on the side of the bed. Kyubi had seemingly fallen asleep waiting for me to wake up. She was no longer in any of her gear and was in a simple t-shirt and trousers.

While looking down at her my memory kicked in on how hard I fought against the invisible force. I had no regard for what would happen and I felt guilty that I didn't even think about Kyubi when I tried to fight into the darkness. To her I must have just collapsed without warning or reason and in the middle of a boss room.

I then noticed something strange in the top left of my vision. Generally there was an indicator for my own health bar and then below that would be Kyubi's followed by any other party members. For some reason only my own bar was showing. The only possible thing I could think to explain this would be that I was removed from the party when I had blacked out, something that further made me guilty.

I went to jog Kyubi, to try and wake her up, but I thought better of it and moved my hand away and instead went to push myself out from the edge of the bed. In doing this I didn't seem to disturb Kyubi in any much way. I pushed myself up onto my feet with a strange ease, no aching and no tiredness that I would have expected after a fight, one of the best advantages of this world.

Once out of my bed I could see that I was still in my full armour with my sword at my belt. Somehow though, Kyubi had managed to take my shield off of me, seeing that it was placed leaning up below the window. The curtains of the window were drawn shut so I couldn't see how late in the day it was. But from the fact that Kyubi was asleep and that no light was passing through the curtains I guessed it was late at night.

I leaned down and picked up my shield, which seemed weightless in my grip, and with my other hand opened up my inventory panels. I slowly moved through the menus, un-equipping my battle gear and putting on my more casual clothes. With a quick check I found that I hadn't managed to get any new items from the boss battle, but I did notice that my gold and experience had increased by a significant amount.

Yet the one thing that I did notice to be different was a flashing number by my messages panel. A floating "1" was bobbing up and down slightly, trying to attract my attention. I closed down my inventory panels, somewhat reluctantly, and opened up my message panel, not knowing who may have left a message.

Inside of my inbox there was only 2 other messages, both were welcome messages from the game that I had opened and ignored long ago now. Above these two however was a third highlighted bar of an unread message. However unlike the other two, the bar was completely blank, showing neither the sender's name nor a subject title.

At first I thought it might have been a glitch, but considering the scale and the time taken on creating this game, I doubted a glitch such as this would have managed to appear. I pressed the message to open it, not knowing what to expect from the contents of it. It came somewhat as a surprise that the message was made up of simple text.

"The reach of man can span very far. Yet a butterfly can still have his effect. Those who have already lost their souls cannot be saved. Yet those of mankind can yet ascend." Although the message had no name attached I read the text with the voice of the old man who was now a faded memory. I had no real idea who had sent the message but I was convinced that it was him that had sent this cryptic message.

A few moments after I finished reading the message a notification panel popped up in front of me. It took a moment to change my focus but it said that a new item had been added to my inventory. I closed the notification and moved the menu tab to the side and went into my inventory list. I had just looked through it so I knew that nothing had previously been amiss or different.

I quickly filtered the menu so that recently added items showed up at the top of the panel. Directly at the top was an item that was simply named "Cup". I clicked onto it but a simple error message popped up saying that I didn't meet the requirements to summon the item. Considering the very plain name of the item this surprised me, so I tried again and was shown the same error message.

I then pressed down on the item and went to the properties tab. This would normally show a short description of the item, its saleable price, rarity and any stats that may be attached to it. Once again the impression of the Old man was very apparent from the menu panel that opened up.

The shown description was short, "Miracle machine". The item held a light blue rarity tag that denoted it as a mythic item, one of a kind within this world. However past this the item had no stats or extra properties, nor did any price show up for it, suggesting that it may not be able to be sold.

The name meant nothing to me; however it was very apparent that the item was going to be important in some way once I could access it. Knowing that my curiosity wouldn't be fulfilled I closed down my inventory screen and went back to my messages to try and make sense of what was written. But the message was gone. The tab I had left open had managed to close without me noticing and the message itself wasn't present in my inbox menu.

I swore to myself as already I could barely remember the exact wording of the message that was now lost. All that was left was the item that I couldn't access and the memory of both the message and the boss fight in which I had blanked out. I felt as if the three events were directly linked to the reason I had been sent to this world.

Another panel caught my attention as it blinked up in front of me. A party request from Kyubi. I turned around to see that Kyubi was awake and standing up beside the bed that I had been sleeping in. Across her face was an expression of anger, but in her eyes I could see a glimmer of relief. I quickly looked down at the invite panel, accepted it and looked back up at Kyubi.

"Never do that again." She spoke with a steady voice, although I could sense that she was forcing it to be steady. Before I could even form a response however she had moved forward and put her arms around me and was holding tight.

The guilt that I had felt earlier seemed to amplify itself drastically now that I was actually seeing her reaction. Yet I didn't know what, if anything, that I could say that would cheer her up or make up for what I had managed to do. So instead I simply returned her embrace.

After some time, Kyubi pushed her way out of the hug and looked at me in an accusatory manner. "You owe me three days' worth of pancakes." She emphasised this by raising 3 fingers and holding them up in my face.

"Was I asleep for three entire days!?" What she had said had worried me, I hadn't actually checked the time or date myself as I assumed I had only been asleep for a relatively short amount of time.

"We defeated a boss, you nearly died on me and I've decided that today is going to be a pancake day." She listed off these three reasons as if it were painfully obvious what they were. Even though she didn't directly answer my question it didn't sound as if I had been down for three days.

Kyubi then turned her back from me and seemed to strut out of my room, intentionally leaving the door open, and walked towards the kitchen. Presumably she wanted to begin banking in on the three days' of pancakes she felt she was owed.

Seeing that she had gone towards the kitchen I swiftly began to follow her. I knew that denying her food was not the best of ideas and it was a way for me to make up for blacking out during a boss fight.

However as I left my room I saw something out of the corner of my eye that stopped me in my tracks. I turned around to see a man sitting in the chair that Kyubi had been sitting at. He wore a simple grey robe and had silvery white hair and beard, that although both were long, they were well maintained.

The man looked at me with an amused look and seemed to laugh slightly to himself. The next second he had completely vanished, with no sign that he had ever been there. He had been so real and so similar to my memory that I knew I couldn't have been simply hallucinating, but there was nothing to suggest that it had been real either.

Past my shock I realised that this seemed to confirm the assumption that he had been the one to place the message and item in my inventory. Why he had done so and why he had appeared was still a mystery to me though.

Not knowing what else to do or make out of what just happened I turned from my room and continued to make my way down to the kitchen. Feeling more confused than I had ever been in this world of fake reality.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


	10. Chapter 10

The beast's claws slammed up against the front of my shield, sending flickering sparks into the air and a rigid shockwave through my arm. However the thick forged steel of my shield didn't yield to the furious attack of the dire-wolf. I had managed to take this hit with ease, yet many more were on their way.

A split moment after the first hit a second dire-wolf leapt forward and slammed its entire body and weight against the lower half of my shield. The force of the blow wasn't enough to disarm me, but it caused my shield to push up and into my legs. The edge of the shield dug into the leather which protected my legs and pushed me off balance slightly.

The pack around me seemed to go deadly silent for a moment, each of their blood red eyes locked onto me. The next second they all rushed forward, three went for my shield, two went for my sword arm, whilst another moved around to try and find my exposed back. I may consider them as digital beasts, but they were annoyingly intelligent and had some form of hive-mind like coordination.

However I managed to see the attack before it came and had just enough time to slam the bottom of my shield into the ground and shelter my body behind it. As the metal edge made contact with the floor a shockwave was sent out around me and a domelike barrier emanated from the front of the shield.

The dire-wolves, with all their intelligence, were caught off guard. The shockwave managed to slow them down, one of them even stumbling to the ground. But even slowed they barrelled into me and the magical barrier. As they connected with the barrier I could hear a slight sizzling sound before the bodies of the wolves were thrown a good few metres away from me.

As the last wolf hit the barrier, I pulled my shield from the ground and went onto the attack. The moment I released my shield the barrier vanished, sending out a second shockwave towards the dire-wolves. I raised my sword and rushed forward to get to work.

I went straight at the closer of the two, ramming my sword into the neck of one and the edge of my shield through the chest of the other. The wolves whimpered slightly as their health bars emptied until they burst into the multitude of glowing pixels that was linked with death.

Although it hadn't taken long to dispatch the two on the ground the other four were up and rushing forward, ready to avenge their fallen pack mates. However this time they seemed un-coordinated, as if some link had been broken. This was the only advantage I needed to beat the dire-wolves in an open fight.

I swung out my shield at the first wolf that reached me, throwing it down to the side. I dodged the charge of the second, slashing my blade all the way along its side. The third was leaping at me so I thrust my sword into its exposed chest and let its momentum take my blade to the side so that it slid off from the blade. The fourth I side stepped its lunge and cut down at its neck hard.

The only sound left was the low growl of the wolf that had collided with my shield and the sound of the bursting pixels. I heard the growl move fast behind me, so I turned on the spot and slashed my sword through the air. The blade struck true and left a glowing red gash through the chest of the now dead dire-wolf.

As the last wolf dropped to the ground with a loud thud my surroundings lit up to the sound of glass shattering. Looking up I could see Kyubi standing with her back towards me, with her spear raised defensively. At the shattering sound she turned to me with a face of relief.

I pushed myself from where I stood and moved into a sprint, as much as my heavy armour would allow. As I caught up to Kyubi she matched my pace even though she could easily go twice as fast. At the far end of the path was an imposing stone door surrounded by a large group of players.

An hour ago an emergency message had been sent out to all known frontline players. The message had come from the head of the " _Frontline Council_ " Heathcliff. All players were to reach the 25th floor's boss room as soon as possible in order to assist the _Aincrad Liberation Corps_.

The labyrinth leading to the boss room was a huge underground maze complex. The entire labyrinth had been mapped out a few days ago, however the traps within would randomly appear as time went by. The traps alone had already killed 13 players and scouting parties had suggested that the boss would be the hardest in the game so far.

All around this trap filled maze I could hear the sounds of fighting. This meant that a lot of people had answered the call and were slowly breaking their way through to the boss room. The door to the boss room was much the same as the one on the first floor. Yet the engravings held familiar shapes.

As the two of us got closer to the door I could begin to make out the designs left on the stone. Each door had been split into 12 separate sections, with each section holding a likeness of the bosses which we had defeated so far. The door had been created to intimidate the players before they even saw the monster inside.

As we reached the grouped players in front of the door a resounding crash came from the other side of the door accompanied with multiple screams. Of the players assembled I recognised most of the faces, all of the top level players were here including Heathcliffe himself.

Heathcliff raised his sword and slammed his shield into the ground, presumably to draw the attention his way rather than at the sounds of battle inside the boss room.

"Our main goal is to save as many people as possible. All tanks need to get to take the boss aggro away from the rest of us, damage dealers will evacuate any player whose health is in the red zone. Once everyone is out of danger, focus fire onto the boss." His voice seemed to resonate through the labyrinth and it betrayed no hint of fear or doubt.

Heathcliff swiftly turned around and pushed open the doors to the boss fight. The moment the doors were open a body flew through the opening, landed and skidded across the floor. A player in heavy armour with green adornments. His health bar showed that he was below 10% hp, but he was still alive. Everyone quickly turned back to the boss room.

"All tanks on me!" Heathcliff's voice was steady even when looking upon the scene unfolding. A half health giant with two heads was violently swinging a hammer, which was bigger than any normal human, at a small group of players at the other side of the room.

The room itself was a natural cavern of titanic proportions which held a golden throne in the centre, overlooking the entrance. All across the, unusually smooth and polished, stone ground I could see huge scorch marks almost as if small explosions had fallen from the towering ceiling.

Heathcliff pulled his sword and shield up into a defensive stance and rushed into the room, joined by those using shields or wearing heavy armour. I looked over to Kyubi, she was scared. But her face had a stony determination that was present on most players during boss fights. We locked eyes for a second and both nodded to each other.

Looking back in front of me I ran off at a sprint in order to join up with the vanguard. As I moved past the threshold of the room I felt the temperature increase drastically. This change in heat was accompanied by a status effect appearing below my health bar, this room blocked all healing potions and crystals. Seeing this effect pop up caused me to hesitate, however I was already half way into the room with little way of turning back now.

Our vanguard was rushing towards the other side of the throne where a group of 7 players were holding out against the giant's attacks. At the back of the group shouting orders was a familiar face, Kibaou. He was one of the most dedicated to ending this game, but seemingly he had forgotten the risks of taking on a boss.

The giant raised its hammer high above its head and aimed the head towards the centre of the survivors. Luckily though, our makeshift vanguard managed to reach the boss before the hammer could fall. As soon as we were close enough we all called up shield skills and bombarded the giant with staggers, stuns and taunts.

The giant seemed to lose its balance slightly and it staggered backwards a few steps, still holding the hammer above its head. However the moment it regained its footing it swung the hammer down towards our shield wall, rather than at the survivor group.

We all seemed to raise our shields instinctively in reaction to the swift change of targets. The blow landed heavily on my own shield, taking around 10% of my health with it. The hammer was large enough that it connected with 5 other shields, leaving only 3 people unharmed by this single strike.

To my side I could see that the other players had already moved in and were carrying the exhausted survivors away from the boss. Given that there was only 5 of those players that were into the red threshold a number of damage dealers went straight for the boss.

As soon as I could see that our damage dealers had joined us and that the injured were out of the way, I moved out away from the giant and repositioned myself on its left flank. The rest of the vanguard seemed to follow suit, being grouped for the hammer strike wasn't a good idea.

Heathcliff didn't move from his spot and was controlling the giant's attention. The giant went for another overhead swing directed at Heathcliff, opening itself up to a full round of attacks from both the damage dealers and tanks.

By the time the hammer had fallen the giant health bar had only lost a few pixels of health. This made me question how Kibaou's small group had managed to take it down to half health before we had arrived. However one thing that was obvious was that this would be a long and hard fight.

* * *

 **Credit goes to FanFiction user G.S.** **Phoenix (** **user id: 3111191)** **for the original characters and story. A big thanks to Phoenix for letting me use the idea and write it up to be published here.**


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